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Vol. 5
No. 1
PRICE IO Cents "Onward, Upward, May We Ever Go ! ••
Thursday. lfcvembaT 22. 19 6'2
Principal on last lap at Queen's College Will continue teaching • Ill England "I feel that a change of Principals ought to be made every ten years or so .... by that time the old chap's been beaten and worn out". In these words Mr. V. J . SangerDavieR, confirmed t.he fact he wai:. on his last lap as Principal of Queen's College. The confirmation although somewhat expected was at the samo 1lime stunning. For indeed this is an eventful yoor fur Q.C. I t ~ but a few weeks ago that we assembled to say farewell to the Deputy Principal. News soon reached llil that 1fr. J . A. Rodway, a :respected and experi.enced member of (lhe staff was due to retiloo during the present term. A chock revealed this to be aoourate but further oonfimied thaJt a.rra.n~ ments were being' made to have hmi remain wifu us unllil. the end of the School Yem·. Nor is tllris all. lit is underst.ood that a member of the Modern Languages Department is also due Mr. V. J . SANGER-DAVIEB, to retire by the end of the Sch?Ol T.D., M.A. YOMI. Thus lit was tilhat the Principal's confirmation of his iimm.inent departure stunned. The situ- Davies proved his organising He felt that the boys rution has 0011tainly cl:ima.xed the prowess. culminating short.age of Masters. would !have been safer at school To lose a Deputy Principal. as th.an elsewhere. So he had them at well as P:nincipal .in the same t:erm school and with the assistance of could well have its repercussions. the Prefects kept them in order. Now that dmslli.c cuia have been Now, meet the P1incipal. made in the grania fun almost Mr. V. J. Sanger-Davies, T.D., every department of the school, he )LA., was welcomed to the School is trying to balance the ~ool's as Principal in December, 1952. finance, though with great difficulDurin"' his peniod. of service, he has ty, on a knife edga displayed remarkable devotion to his duty. He spends _1lhe .greaJter "I feel that a change of Principart of his normal clay m his office. pals ought to be made every ten Thero he keeps an up-to-<late check yoa.rs or so. By that time, the old on work, games, the building, and chrup's beaten and worn out . .. . " all the intrica.1lo details ithat go says M.r. Sanger-Davies fondly. with running a Secondary Gram- But instead of taking a peaceful ma.r School. whtich is reputed t,o be rest, he plans to continue rtmcl:Jing ono 0£ the best in the West Indies. in England. But he :adds, "Not as In work, the Principal has in- Principal, of COlll'S0." troduced the 'wookly-slip' syst.em to chock on the progress of the 'l'he Lict,,r therefore most deepLaggers-,bebind. The dread of the ly thanks Mir. Sam..,ner-Davies for cane as well as enooura.,,<>i.ng words his outstanding devotion a.nd loyalhave seemingly helipecl som e. But ty -to the school. But rather th.an as for the others, Mr. Sanger- ramiuise:iug on his glorious past Davies looks personally to see that we look forward to ,t he time when tihey do not affect tho rest by their we shall have another such chamlazy s.pproo.oh to their wark. He pion of Queen's College.-ED. recommends them ''out-" H e is always in touch with - - - - - - -- - - -- gwmes officials and ready to deal witJt absentees and other offendors. Art; one time certain boys le.£: their bicycles just outside of the playing field. The watchmen, under the Principal's orders, slyly noted the numbel'S. On the following Monday the offenders left the office, rubbing their pants. Queen's College was presented The building and its furniture witih a stone ,tla,ble and two never eseape his scrutinous ey~, benches by 1\fr. A. Hope in _appre, and it now appears >that he 1s ci.ation of the happy days ms boys skilled in his new 'hobby' of re- spent at the school. paining door looks. '.l'l1e eldest boy, W. B. Hope, left But most astounding is tJ1.e fa.ct that ih.e makes it his duty to know in July, 1953. Ho ~as ~ school every boy in the school I Som~ Prefect and is now doing his Ph.D. times he make rough 'spot checks' at Howard University. on their cycles to ensure their safety. In other words the Principal B. B. Hope left in JuJy, 1956. He was Head of School and ca,pis a man of evory detrui.l ! Mr. Sanger-Davi.es has also in- tiain of athletics. troduood the st.eroophonie sound The ,thirrd, C. H. Hope was with system for the music lovers, as well as the dreaded hi.to-parade for us up to July, 1961. He was also a School Prefect and captain of the habitually tardy. As a 1\faster, the Principal capa- a.th letics. bly teaches the ~ntroduction to Science in the Third Forms. He The table and benches were made also t.eaches Maths, Physics and by Mr. Rope himself. They are Scripture. Concerning his know· t.amporarily _placed on the l:1-wn beledge in the last-mentioned, he is side the driveway, . and will soon Supervisor of the School's Chris- be n'C'mC>ved to a. smtable spot and tian Fellowship Society and ha.~ then cemented. lectured there a :&w times. During tihe dtistnrba.nces of the 1 The LictQ1" stiaff thanks Mr. week of February 16, Mr. Sanger- · Hope for his generosity.
1962 RESULTS ANALYSED Should there be·a Students' Union at Q.C.?
The r esults of this year's external examinations did not on the whole prove as striking as is customary. A brief analysis w ill demonstrate t his. A record number of 90 candidates sat at Advanced Level G.C.E. Subjects totalled 235 t he hight>st so far. There were 133 passes , 22 short of last year's record. In Arts there were 38 successes from 61 entries and in Science 95 from 174. Six persons each shared 4 passes - t his was never done before. Eighteen achieved 3 passes each, 14 short of the record in 1961. Arts Maths and Science claimed 2, 1, and 2 distincffon& r espectively. R. Roopnarine achieved the two Arts distinctions and T . D' Anjou those in Science. Both were awarded t he Guiana Scholarship. F i n a 11 y, t he percentage dropped from t he average number of passes in Arts and Science was 12.3 and 9.6 1·especiively. On the whole, the average n umber of passes per boy has dropped 'by, 27%. This may perhaps be explained by the then acute Staff shortage. There were 22 1 candidates for t.he 0. Level. A record was set when 69% of the 948 entries proved successful. 5C and 5M netted 84 % and 81 % success respectively in their number of passes and 7.4 and 7.6 passes per boy, All are records. There was 66% success in the 5R and an average of 2.6 passes per boy. The upper fourths were 85% successful as compared with their 87% last year. Astounding was the fact that V. Sank.at from the UIV'S, lost no mar ks
T. A . D'A NJOU
R. ROOPNARIN E
in Elementary Mathematics. This is the first time t hat such has been done here in 10 years! We can only speculate what next year's r esults will be.
Four Join Staff Several new :hfast:ers have jooned market, quair:rellilJg, and in such
us this t.erm. Among them are : )Ir. W. H. A. L. Parris, an old boy and l 959 Guiana Scholar. H e took a Special degree in Ma.them:a.tics a.t tho U.W.I- on an Exhibition he won, and ,vill soon be leaving ro t.ake a degree in Economics, ma.king USO of his deferuoo Guiana Scholarship. Mi. S. R. Insanally, elder brother of popular Vic Insanally, is also an old boy. He tiaug~ at Kingston College, Jamaica. He is doing resea;rch work in French Creole in which he h0pe3 to take his Doctorato. He is regi.st.ered at ilhe
School getsi Gift
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Universi~ of Panis and will lat.er leave to go there. With us also, is Ur. N. K. Robinson, another old boy. He obtained a B.A. Honours in History at the U.W.I. He too, will be leaving in the near futu~ to do ~ u ate work for his M.A., aft.er which he hopes to return here either to teach, ar to ,vork in the Civil Service Administration. Ur. W.. A· Sam who left us in 1961, has also joined the Staff. He taught at !.E.T. during last year. He will be ,vitlh us for this iwademic year before departing to the U.W.I. to read for a B.A. ITonours in Spanish.
like ci:rcumsta.noo;i. The t.a.perocorcling was done exclusively in .tlho Georgetown area. 'l'h.e;;e speeches were scientifically ana.1ysecl. The main aim was to give a lead to tho teaching of English with special reference to looal diffi.cultiw. W e congratll!laite Dr. Allsopp on his success. Also returning from study leave is ebullient Mr. R. J . Moore. At Cambridge he took tho socond pamt of the Historical Tri.pos . Whilst
ther~ 1\Ir. M.oore won a British Council Bursary to ~-tudy adult education and wok a. course in Broadcasting iat the B.B.C. He is now supervisor oi' rthe Literary 'and Debating Society and hopes to do a. research degree in Guianese history. J ovi.al M:r. D. Hetram also retumed this lierm. H e was successful in the second part of 1:ris BaJr
Finals in LondonWe oo1lg'raitnlate iir. H etram who now only needs to complete l1is 'dinners' before being fomnally called to it.he Bllll•.
Mr. M. T. Lowe resumed dulty after a year's study leave. H e was at the Department of Education of Bris'-..ol University on a ComRNUrni.ng this temi after a monwea.1'th Tea.char Training Buryea.r's study leave, is Dr. S. R. R. sary. Mr. W. H. Mohabir was here for Allsopp, wl10 received his Doctoo-at.e in Guianese Creole rut the Uni- a month. before leaving to n:snme teaching at M:unro College in versity of London. Dr. Allsopp did research work Jamaica. The "Li.ct.or" is confident that on the Verb, ha:voing completed. the Pronotm before. Ris research these gentlemen will have a pl~ work inc.luded the tape-irecording ant te<nn of office at Q-C. -FEAT Eel of people RpOa.king freely in fue
S hould there be a Students' Union at Q.C.? And if there were, what should be its objective a nd r ole? These are questions to wh.'ich some senior students a re seeking t he answer. Your Features E ditor solicited the opinions of three senior students on this issue, .a nd here t hey are-for what t hey are worth. C. 0 . MARSHALL: "The Students' Union idea is not a new one in Queen's College. I can remember that some time ago Brian Rodway, one of our old boys, made an attempt to form a similar body. When I was first approached early last ye11,r by J. P. Benjamin, R. R. Roopnarine and M. M. Drepaul on the starting of a Students' Union, I was naturally cautious. We all knew that a Students' Union was a body of proven usefulness in college and university life, but we were not all sure of the exact role it would play at Q.C. "First of all the sixth form at Queen's, from which one would expect the leaders of such a body to emerge, showed a tendency to get younger and younger. T aken by and large this plainly meant that the leadership of the organisation could well come under a group of seventeen year-olds, and lose that essential maturity that was a feature of successful Studen ts' Bodies the world over. We further realise that there would be a great need for mat u rity in any such organisation in B.G., in view of t he prevailing political atmosphere. It was this, then, more than any other consideration, which caused us to shelve the idea of a Students' Union. R. CHANDISINGH: "The most important element in our coun try is the student. Unfortunately they do not realise their strength, they are not conscious of their own importance. Right now, they cannot agitate for what they want. A Studen ts' Union will have the effect of an awakening on the studen t body. They would realise that in our country where all political activity affects them, it is for them either to express support for, or disapproval of, any action which affects them. The sum of living is the happiness derived from it. The student life must be made as pleasant as possible. Yet no Principal is a superman to know all the grievances of studen ts. But the students can, through t heir union, discuss these with the Principal. This, s urely, is not a matter of questioning authority. Yet, handled irresponsibly, a union like t his can over-step its bounds and defeat its purpose. In its attempt to exert too much influence it may de· generate into a rabble g r oup. But this would only be if handled irresponsibly" . G. 0. FARNUM: "As I see it, a Students' Union is a waste of t ime at the present moment unless it can be assured of support and recognition from important Bections of the community, or unless it can exert some influence on them. What (Continued on Page 2)